Neverland
by Lillian Lies
Summary: My Peter Pan had messy black hair and hazel eyes. Lily reflects on her and James's relationship, and her favorite childhood story, Peter Pan.


A.N: I own nothing, and never will. Also.. my first story, so enjoy.

For the first few years of my life, my greatest ambition was to become a princess. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty – they were all my favorite stories. Every day I would dress up, wear a tiara, and happily play make-believe for hours at a time. At night, I would request the same bedtime stories over and over. I imagined that in the future, I would have a Prince Charming, a castle to live in, and a happily ever after.

Then, my parents took me to see the play Peter Pan for my eighth birthday. From that day on, I was completely hooked. There were no more stories for me about girls who just sat around waiting for their princes to come. I wanted to have adventures: to meet mermaids, talk to fairies, and fight pirates. For almost a year, I left my windows open at night, hoping that a boy would fly in looking for his lost shadow and take me to Neverland. Once, wanting to fly, I jumped out of a tree that was in our lawn while thinking happy thoughts. Strangely enough, I didn't get hurt, but I didn't fly either.

I found out why I was uninjured a few years later, during the summer I was 11. A strict woman in a tight bun came to my house and told me I could do magic, just like the people in my fairy tales. My first Neverland came in the form of a castle that was also my home.

I was ecstatic at the new life I had. Over the years, most of my "make-believes" came true. I met mermaids and fairies, and I got to fly, although it was on a broomstick. Later I would fight Death Eaters instead of pirates with wands instead of swords, but it was close enough.

And my Peter Pan? He turned out to be a boy with messy black hair and hazel eyes, who was named James instead of Peter. Like the boy who would never grow up, he flew without any fear, and he held on to his youth longer than almost anyone else in our year.

Unlike Wendy and Peter, our relationship did not start out smoothly. On my first day of Hogwarts, James and his best friend Sirius thought they could make our tiny boat go twice as fast as all the other boats on the lake we were crossing. We ended up in the lake, with the boat speeding away from us as fast as possible. They were the only two people who ever broke a Hogwarts boat.

From that day on, James Potter and his three best friends were the best-known pranksters the school had ever known. And I was the good girl, getting perfect grades, becoming a prefect, and being generally known for being the "responsible one."

I hated James with a passion for the first six years of school. He was the kind of person who wouldhex someone in the corridor for breathing too loudly or for being in the wrong House. He was so arrogant and bigheaded, thinking he was better than everyone else. And he was too – 2nd in the year academically (behind only me) and captain of the Quidditch team. He didn't try either; he was just gifted I guess.

The worst part about him was his obsession with me. Asking me out seemed like just a game to him... see how many times Lily can turn you down. We fought constantly. I told him he was immature and cocky, and he just laughed at me.

Then 7th year came along, and life changed for both of us. We became Head Boy and Girl, "the perfect couple." He had actually become a nice, mature person, but that didn't mean I liked him.

Until people started dying – that's when I realized I needed him as much as he needed me. I needed a new Neverland, one where I didn't have to worry about the events that were unfolding around me.

My world was crumbling, and only James could save me. What used to seem immature and childish to me turned into a respite from my worrying about school and life after school.

It actually all started just like in my little-girl dreams, exactly 10 years after I began my Peter Pan obsession. It was my 18th birthday, an unusually warm Saturday in September. I had spent the day unwrapping presents and having fun with my friends, but James had barely looked at me, let alone wished me a "Happy Birthday." It was a strange to me, but I was a little disappointed.

That night, however, at about one in the morning, I was woken from my sleep by a tapping on my window. It was James on a broomstick, ready to take me to Hogsmeade for my birthday.

I don't know what came over me. Maybe it was that he had become so nice recently, maybe it was the influence of Butterbeer, or maybe it was something indefinable at that time. Whatever the reason was, I found myself getting on the broomstick with him.

We had an amazing time that night. James was charming, funny, kind, everything I ever wanted him to be. At the end of the night in my dorm, he gave me a silver charm bracelet for my present. We had our first kiss that night, and it was perfect.

From that day on, we've been inseparable. It's scary to think that you will be spending the rest of life your life with someone, and even scarier to not know how long that life will be.

But that doesn't bother me so much now that I have James at my side. Because my Peter Pan has grown up, at least a little, and he's complete in a way the real Peter never was. He's everything to me, and I love him for it. I feel safe with him, protected from Hook and his crew of pirates.

Besides, as J.M. Barrie once wrote, "To die would be an awfully big adventure."


End file.
